Hello Steve,
We did look at your Local directory, but we don’t recommend to our clients yet, as your site appears to focus on the Twin Cities. For the cost, it may be worth someone listing in the Minnesota, but the value ($150/year) is hard to justify to our clients outside that area.

Thanks for catching that AhmedF. We’ve corrected that.

Mat,

Great resource you’ve put together, we’ve just signed up to do a pilot with UBL. I was skeptical until an old friend took over as President and now we’re going to give it a try.

Followed you over from Jeremy’s post on HuoMah.com.

Cheers,
Will

…. I thought that I would also chime in on your comments concerning “The Importance of Online Local Listings”

It’s critical to point out that with Gmaps in particular, a business should claim it’s listing because if they don’t it can be – and probably will be – hijacked at some point.

I just read an interesting post on another blog where a mom and pop local business had it’s Gmap listing go awry until they actually claimed and verified their listing.

Some better perspective on this reality at: http://blumenthals.com/blog/2009/02/25/google-maps-vs-locksmiths-spammers-spammers-winning/comment-page-1/#comment-335329

Sorry about the ugly url but the post by Mike Blumenthal is a great read!

Cheers
–Wilf

Hi Matt,
We started as a local Minneapolis directory, (TCBusiness.org_. We are now expanding internationally as V-Local.com. We will be providing service for clients in a 50 states Canada, and the UK. Then we plan to expand to other countries.

Thanks!

Steve

Hey Mat,

That’s pretty much what I expected. Thanks for verifying. You saved me an email

Love the logo btw – and a nice read on crowd sourcing.

Cheers
–Wilf

Hello Rob,
We don’t recommend Acxiom at this point, as we’re not aware of any serious impact they have on getting customers “in the door” for local business. We might be wrong of course, but InfoUSA and Localeze both provide local data to online while Acxiom appear to take the “old phone book”, aggregate the data and resell it. We do know Acxiom does supply ContractorGuide.com and a few other niche local directories with data, but we are not listing the Niche verticals since they are just that, niche (perhaps a future post on local niche directories).

If anyone knows of Acxiom and its power to drive local business via online use of its data, please correct me.

Mat, thanks for including GetFave.com. One of our big differentiators is that we don’t force you to compete with reviews…we have all seen the allegations against Yelp out this morning. We allow you, and not your reviewers and competitors, to control your own listing and create the message you want to deliver.

Hey Patty,
I’m actually a fan of the print yellow pages in some ways. No one can refut their power in reaching an older demographic locally (they still account for over 30% of local search, the equivalent of the major search engines!) I always recommend a local business be in there, especially if they target “mature” customers. I just wanted to say that, as I’m not anti-paper or what-not

hi Matt
would you mind adding our local search directory click2connect.com to your list. We use localeze data.
We are in beta phase right now and will soon be releasing our social networking interface for local search.
We see local search as primarily a social application.

traderruss,
Thanks for letting me know about your local search engine and directory. The purpose of the post is to break down all the local search engines, directories and data providers that a local business needs to submit to. I know the list is a little “Murky” when it comes to the Yellow Pages sites, as they all go to the same place. I will have to resolve that in the future I guess.

Since your site does not accept submissions of local businesses to get into your site, I don’t want to lead people looking to do that there, however, I think it is important that readers know about your site as an example of why they need to submit to Localeze, or for that matter Universal Business Listing which includes Localeze. Knowing how to “get into” your results needs to be spelled out, so I am more than happy do that.

Thanks Steve!
I have thought about taking down the Canada info and just having the US, as it has been difficult to get info about Canadian listings (and we don’t have any Canadian clients). But, with the help of Canadians, I think we can include it and get it right.

InfoCanada has told me Canadians can go submit their business to ContentFeedback@infoUSA.com, but I wonder.

Did you try Universal Business Listing? They “Feed” infoUSA.com and bet they handle Canada. It would be interesting to see if they cover InfoCanada as well. I’ll do some asking of the people I know there.

Thanks Intermediate! We like to think we know it all (ok, someone here in particular). It’ll just take some more time to download our minds into more posts.

Thank you for coming by and letting me know about this excellent list. I added links to it from several posts about Local Search and just shared it at Twitter, cliKball and FriendFeed so others can use it.

We just published a TwtPoll asking our readers and Twitter followers which directories they prefer to use. Perhaps you would like to participate and check out the results. I used that link as the URL for this comment to make it easy to locate.

Thanks for the list of local searches and for the idea of using them. Of course, we are not losing the business, but it may help our clients easier find our business.

We are now working on improving of our ranking and visibility in local searches.

Once again, thanks.

Thank You Eco Yellow Pages. I think your site is awesome and really needed.

If you had the time, do you think it’s better to manually submit to all the directories or go through UBL instead? I read somewhere that google frowns on automated directory submission.

Hi Mat -

Hope you’ll consider adding Matchpoint (http://www.matchpoint.com) to this list as we cover all cities in the USA and now offer a pretty robust free listing product that you can read about here:

http://blog.matchpoint.com/?p=130

Best,

-P-

Hi Mat,

My company, Praized Media, has created the first white-label local social networking platform designed specifically for enhanced community conversations around places. It enables any website to deploy a social business directory and it comes pre-filled with US business data from Localeze and Canadian data from Yellow Pages Group. Any business not in our database can add itself by using the “add a place” function at www.praized.com.

As a small business owner I love the idea of online directories instead of print because not only does it save us from wasting so much paper it is just a better way of getting the information. If you want to change something online it just takes a few seconds but if printed your stuck with it for the whole year. I am going to add my business to your list of sites and want to say thanks for the great information.

Wow! thats a great list, im gonna look through them and add our site to the ones we have yet to sign up for. we really appreciate the effort put towards compiling the list.

ps the chart is skewed the right a lot.(for me atleast.) I looked at the source code of this page to see which ones would work best for me.

Hey Mat,
Awesome post! Thank you so much.
How does localeze.com and local.com compare to UBL? Should I do both?

Also, I am looking for a solution that will scour all known local directories and localized search engines using a URL, business name or phone number and return a “Local Search Saturation Report”. This would be a great tool for local search pros and Internet Marketers to share with a prospect, “make ‘em sick, make ‘em well” for all u sales pros out there.
Have you seen or heard of such a thing?
I am beginning on developing one and would love to hear your thoughts.
Thanks for a great post.
-Martin Walker

As a new SEO company I am trying not to promise fast results in link building to my clients, since it always takes time and there is no 100% guarantee that it will work.

This list is a very fast way to add new websites into local directories. I highly appreciate this info and will use it wisely.

Thank You

Ronny

urNetwork

Hey jiminyclickit,
I had not heard of areaconnect.com, thanks, I will check them out. Citysearch.com is on the list, and covered by Universal Business Listing as well.

Hi,

Thanks for your fast reply, yes I understand your point. But SEO companies will show their clients this list and make sure they use it wisely, therefore SMB will have a use from this list.

BTW except for Google Maps which ones are strong Internationally?

Thanks

Ronny

Wow! you guys rock! Thanks for the great info. Not only did I find places to list my business, but other local spots where I can network as well!

Great List!

You’re welcome. I’ll be updating it in the coming weeks as well.

Mat-

Great article. I am wondering if you use UBL does that mean you don’t need to do phone verification for google maps? I have heard not everyone’s cell phone gets the verification code signing up directly with google maps using mobile phones. Perhaps this has been fixed. Great resource.

Deb

Great question. Google is a beast at times. I would give them personal attention, outside of UBL. Also, don’t forget to optimize your listing before your submit to them or others, especially UBL!

Nice collection, as this will be helpful for resources for all SMB’s and local internet marketing firms. Thank you, Lisa.

Wow. I’ve been looking for a list like this for a little while now, I’m bookmarking this page for sure.

p.s. Feel free to update this list if you feel the need to.
(But it’s a great list even if you didn’t.)

That is a wonderful resource. I had never heard of Universal Business Listing before. Thanks for the tip.

Andrew

Great list of local directories and resources. I agree about UBL, it’s worth every penny.

Amazing list. We’re writing an article on how to get local listings in google and came across this article.

This was a very helpful article for us as new small biz trying to establish a presence online. Can you comment on how long it generally takes UBL to feed the various directories with updates. It’s been a week for us since we registered on UBL, but many sites still seem unware.

Mat, I just want to say thank you for this post. I have read it three months ago before I started on my local SEO and online advertising. Before this point, I had no web presence. In this short period of time, I am ranking extremely well for all of my local keywords both in the 7-box and organic. I couldn’t have done it without this information! Thanks again!

Thanks Mat:
Has anything changed since you wrote this post? What are your thoughts today? Thank you.

Hey golander,
You commented a while ago, and I thought I had addressed what you said, but one of my readers thought I should re-address it. I have Localeze listed as being fed by Universal Business Listings. I think this occurred from research (From last January if that matters) that Localeze got some of its data from InfoUSA (to be honest, it may just be a copy and paste issue). Regardless, I want my post to be accurate and it appears the data submitting with Universal Business Listings may not eventually”trickle” into Localeze.

I would really appreciate if you could add clarity to this, and perhaps also mention some of the key sites Localze feeds now, and add how local businesses can best add their information to Localeze.

Thanks

Dear Mat,

I own a local small business in Phoenix, AZ and in my company industry I need to fight every day with fraud companies that present themselves as local businesses while they are not local at all…Anyway, as part of my fight, I’m doing (as for now) a little local SEO for my company website and since the day I discover your blog and this list particularly I already subbmit submitted my company website to most of the sites that you recommended and I wanted to say THANK YOU VERY MUCH for all of the valued information that you share in your blog. I (and many other)appreciate it very much.

BTW, do you offer any type of local SEO services ?

Thanks.

Roy

Hi there,
I run a small local rug business and has recently gotten into blogging to help market my business online. Problem is I cannot get my blog to rank high enough for any kind of traffic. I will try your list and hopefully, these can help to bring in more traffic for my blog.

Thanks!

Hello Sir Very Very very nice presentation and much informative article for me and for SEO’s I am Going to Bookmark this page and will use your list on recent project which i am doing now a days.

Thanks
Keep it Up Sir

The problem is that you can’t cancel your Yellow Pages ad in the middle of the year if it isn’t working, if business has fallen off for the season

Great Question. I know there are a lot of Local SEO experts on this page. Anyone want to weigh in?

I like the site! But since it is for Blogs and not businesses, it is not really suited for the list. Perhaps when I update the posting I can give it a mention for those businesses with blogs.

Hi Mat,

Love your logo which fits well with your blogname and its content. I find your posts extremely helpful and have been lurking around here for quite some time.

Mia

Local Search Engines – looking for this for long time. I’m agree with you in 90% .

hi Matt
would you mind adding our local search directory www.easyclickbooking.com to your list. We use localeze data.
We are in beta phase right now and will soon be releasing our social networking interface for local search.
Thank you.

Hello Booking Hotel,
It sounds like we have you covered with the mention of Localeze. The purpose of the post is to let small businesses know all the place where they should be listed, and where they can go to get listed. As a niche search engine, listing your site would not be appropriate to those outside the hotel industry. I hope that makes that since Localeze is covered, that your site is covered too.

Shame shame
“So start with Universal Business Listing (UBL). I don’t mean this to be a review of Universal Business Listing, but they are the “big one”. ”

yet the link you provide for that URL is http://www.universalbusinesslisting.org/?ref=Brotaich_eMarketing_10

disappointed, but I suppose were all trying to make a quick buck. Still nice list and ty for it.

Glad to hear it! Use it, spread it around. I really need to update it, so let me know if you see any improvements.

Good list. There are a few others I’d probably add though. LocalDatabase.com and probably LocalD.com just because it seems to rank so highly in Goog.

Appreciate your input. Nice list for getting started!

It is important to have good directories to list to. My favorite is botw.

Is there some recomended “UBL” website for Canada?

Universal Business Listings (linked towards the top of the page) does that for $30. They are mentioned earlier in the post. Hope that helps.

Thanks for sharing this list. I hope this will boost my business. Thanks again !!!

Here is the current, definitive list of sites UniversalBusinessListings.org submits to:

https://www.ubl.org/Distribution_List.aspx

GREAT Resource, Mat!

Can you tell me how UBL works if you’ve already submitted your site to a directory they feed to?

Also, does UBL give you log-in information so you can manually tweak a listing if you want to?

Cheri

Thanks nathon. That beats the old list they had with only a few. I’m going to have to put in the time to rank the sites again. Do you see any on their list that have real value that should be added to mine?

Hello Linda,
I would submit through UBL, but go in and handle each of the top engines manually. I think there is consensus on that from the SEO pros who have commented here. I am going to send your question off to the folks at UBL myself just to make sure I have the facts clear overall.

Also, that list is prioritized, but its a bit over a year old, so I have a few changes to make, none of which really affect the value of the list, just housekeeping since the industry is growing so fast.

Hello Modesto,
I wanted to get it right, so I emailed your questions to Universal Business Listings. I have not heard back yet, so I thought I should share the best of what I know about your questions.

If you already submitted to a directory, then you will sort of be doing it again. A lot of directories will catch this, but it would be best for you to manually admin it after the fact. As fr tweaking information, Universal Business Listings does allow you to maintain your information, but it is only re-submitted every so often, so if you are into tweaking, it should be done there and also on the main directories you see having an impact in terms of bringing traffic into the site.

At the end of the day, this is a great way to cover bases, but if you are looking at fine tuning your SEO efforts, then you may find yourself a bit too advanced for UBL. I wrote this blog post for small business who needed to get it done in a big way, as an easy and effective way, but it is not the advice I would give to advanced SEO people (I will actually take SEO advice from this group, not give it!)

Hope that helps. If I hear back, I’ll let you know.

Keith

As a newbie, this article was really helpful, thanks for sharing!

nice information let me try

Tell me about it! I’m always on the edge of this space (I focus on web success, not Local SEO). I’ve been looking for an SEO company to update this list for “Creds”. I have not had any takers yet (they all seem too busy I guess).
If you know any local SEO people, let me know.

Yahoo directory works the best in my professional opinion.

from my past experience I realized that the directories strategy is the best. I am on the first page for many keywords using only directories for SEO

That is funny! Sad, and likely hurting their business! It does not matter which software you have, as eventually the information gets shared between them and they all list a site as unsafe. Their site has either contracted a virus or more likely, they hare not practicing what your security software thinks they should. Either way, stay away for now. If you read the “About me” section, you’ll see I know a lot about this area.

Love it! How many Unique Views does your data get? I see business owners can submit directly which is great.

Thanks for the excellent advice lohaar. I hope people are reading these comments. This post is getting updated soon and I’ll see to it that gets mentioned.

Havent been here in a while.lol
Good to see it’s still alive. Good luck on the new update.

Mat you can add our site on there, we also have a Free website submission area works well and we update it when needed.

Thanks,

Very useful list Even I used to use Universal Business Listing for submitting to local directories as Air Duct Cleaning Seattle pointed out that they started increasing their rates.

I know it sucks when things go up. I love and use www.UserTesting.com a lot, and it KILLS me when they up there prices! I always check out the competition again, then always go back cause in the end they are the best and worth it. We all need to decide if a vendor is still worth it and they need to price for max profit. I hope they read your comment and take it into consideration. I think increasing prices when you have the best solution leads towards other solutions, so perhaps we will have some alternatives pop up at a lower price point soon.

It’s an interesting approach. I commonly see unexceptional views on the subject but yours it’s written in a pretty unusual fashion. Surely, I will revisit your website for additional info.

Nice list keep the good work going by posting such nice listing. Can any help me in finding sites which accepts Indian websites.

Sorry. I am not aware of any in India.

Website Developers India,
I just came across this site earlier today. Looks kinda spammy, but maybe what you are looking for? http://www.directorycritic.com/local-directory-list.html

Mat,
This is a fantastic resource and discussion. I can’t wait for your update!
Regarding a couple of comments up the thread: I was involved in the development of Guidespot.com (since sold) – we licensed data from Acxiom. Like many startups in the local space, we needed a comprehensive source of local business data at a reasonable price, which they provided. I don’t know if the other data providers work the same way, but we had to pay to get updated data, so we let it go for a while before getting a refresh. So to the commenter who was wondering how quickly listings show up, it can be many months in a case like that.
You’ve also convinced me on UBL – hope you get a good commission

Another thing, do you know of a company/website similar to www.usertesting.com but for SEO purposed? A website that I would pay for them to audit my site SEO wise?

Thanks for Sharing Joe. I wish I had more time to blog more (young family, job, side-biz etc). I did start this blog as a place to send small biz too and all the posts are really intended as a gift to some small biz I know of etc. Also thanks for sharing the pdf, I can see the value.

It was very helpful… thx

Hey Nazre,
I think you meant priceless, not worthless LOL

Hey, this is very nice listing but i didn’t any Canadian directories here. They all work in US only

I started compiling my own list of local sites and then found yours. Great job, it’s bookmarked!

One resource to add is DeclareMedia. They publish thousands of local business directories that offer free listings with no reciprocal or any of that stuff.

THANK YOU! Did not know about that one.

I stumbled onto this site by accident, very useful, I plan to become Listed in the Directories…

Weird, I see UBL does not submit to them anymore and the link to their old suggest page is not there anymore. Their site doesn’t even cover it. I’m guessing they are supplied by someone else. I would love to hear the story behind this! I am guessing that if you submit to InfoUSA, it will magically show up. Just a guess.

Is there a program that I can get listed with all the search engines at 1 time?

can I get an email on how to go about getting listed with the correct Url.

Thank You!

Consider these local search directories very effective!

Been looking into using local search directories for a couple of projects and one thing to consider for those short on time is to outsource the submissions. For example I find it amazing what you can get done for 5 bucks at Fiverr.com and there are of course many alternatives around.

I have just found these post and it’s really interesting! Thanks!

Hello Bob,
Localeze is content manager for local search engines (they “own” data that seach engines and directories use), while UBL is a mechanism to submit to seach engines and directories. Hope that helps.

Interesting thread, and hey Mat, you’ve been part of this whole thing all the time – that is how it should be.

Heya, I am here for the first time . I came across your blog and I have found it very useful & it helped me out a lot. I hope to give something back and inform others like you helped me.

I was wondering how often the more local search engines are used by the over 40s? Interested marketing news cos most of my customers are older than 40 – Nice stuff

This is a great resource for our Sydney based Commercial Law Practice. We are trying to create a greater presence on the web and have found this article to be a great help in getting it right. We will check out UBL and see how it goes. Thanks for the advice Mat.

Vin

I in addition to my guys ended up going through the excellent information on the blog and then before long came up with a terrible feeling I had not thanked you for those techniques. My guys are actually as a consequence joyful to see all of them and have in effect extremely been having fun with them. We appreciate you actually being very accommodating and then for making a choice on this kind of impressive information millions of individuals are really wanting to know about. My sincere apologies for not expressing gratitude to you earlier.

Just additional this to my blog, hope you don’t thoughts.

Great Article! It is so important for local businesses to claim there listing. Best investment for a Small business! Local search listings can really boost revenue and generate new life long customers.

Wow, this is an awesome post. As an SEO guys, this is a HUGE help. Thank you so much!

Great article thanks for the time and effort put into it. Just started looking into expanding our local search availability and your list with notes destroys the generic spammed out lists I found elsewhere.

I’ve actually found some of these places don’t even have CORRECT information!! They have the wrong phone # for our business (it’s our Fax listed as phone) so this is helping me track down those data sources to correct many at a time. A lot of work grunting through to claim and correct but well worth the effort in the long run.

-Steve

I have just entered the world of on line advertising. The results that I am seeing is that I am getting a more sophisticated client through my on line marketing efforts.

Great resource and thank you for your time in putting it together. One question on UBL. Is it work considering the other packages? Thanks.

I wanted to address the comments about UBL’s renewal. I discussed this with them personally. You do not even have to renew with them if you don’t want to and I was told there MAY BE NO harm if you don’t. Reason being, they do not claim your listings as your own, nor do they remove your data from those listings if you don’t renew. Once you’re in local directories as a result of their assistance, you’re there independently of them – as long as those local directories will have you.

What they do tell you, though, is that if those local listings come back from more data from UBL and you’re not there, they might remove you from their directories thinking your business is no longer in existence. That’s UBL speaking. I’ve not seen evidence of that happening, but I’m not going to say it doesn’t happen. For me $30 a year is a small price to pay for that assurance and the convenience of having one place to update your listings in those directories you have not claimed.

Great article thanks for the time and effort put into it.

I had never heard of the concept of “Universal Business Listings” before, and these folks get you into google maps, Yahoo local et al all for a one off fee, thanks for posting this.

You are so right. The Yellow Pages are a thing of the past. Soon more than likely to save paper they will cease to exist.

It is really a great piece of information and provides some key insights in this area necessary for the excellence in this field.

I’ve actually found some of these places don’t even have CORRECT information!! They have the wrong phone # for our business (it’s our Fax listed as phone) so this is helping me track down those data sources to correct many at a time. A lot of work grunting through to claim and correct but well worth the effort in the long run.

Thanks for this list. Local directories are a must when it comes to Local Search Engine Optimization. Gone are the days of the yellow page book.

Nice suggestions. i will try that sites also. Thanks!

I’m not big fan of Best of the web. You guys have it as free but really its paid if you want to get any back links from it.

That is awesome Ken. I’m glad to see a resource I created is being shared by SEO experts now (I wrote it for the “little guy”, but SEO pros seem to appreciate it a lot too).

Great Post Mat, It would help me a lot to work on local search listings.

Great resource and list you have put together…which UBL package is a good start? Is the pro for $349 the best value?

Yellowpages are dead. If you would have asked me in 2005 I would have not thought it possible; then I relied on a 1/4 add.

Hello Everyone,
I just wanted to let everyone know that I have started to update this list. It takes a long time to do, and so far I have the top 10 listed. Since it has been over 2 years since I wrote this, and I AM NOT an SEO, it is very time consuming and will likely take me a few more weeks to get done.

Keith

Hi Mat,

Thank you for putting together this very useful list.

I am a Co-founder of PinBud, a new directory of local businesses where users can find, select, and contact multiple listings with a single request form, therefore saving time when asking for a quote. I would like to suggest adding our website(s) to your list:

www.PinBud.com (US)
www.PinBud.ca (Canada)
www.PinBud.co.uk (UK)

We are a PR3 site (and growing). Local service providers (home contractors, professionals, etc.) can claim or list their business for free or choose enhanced features with a paid membership option. Currently the enhanced listings are also free with an extended free trial period.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Best Regards,
Chris
PinBud.com

Thanks Mat,

Looking forward to see our PinBud on your list. Yes, we are young and growing fast. Watch for some nice developments this fall.
We welcome any business that provides local services to add their listing. Hey, it’s free and it comes with some great features!

Chris

This page is a great starting point for SEO..I found it last year and used the list you provide to start getting juice for several websites I have been working on. Thanks alot..keep it up.

John Q. Shearer

thanks for the information… wasnt sure if ubl was worth it, but it appears to something worth checking out.

thanks,
jamie

Thanks for the list of directories Mat, I am going to see which ones are applicable for my businesses.

What a very helpful article! I am so excited I found your page. Keep up the amazing work. Have a excellent day!mail forwarding

Great article. I can’t agree with you more. Yellow pages are extinct. Nobody uses it anymore.

ah.. I still prefer the cheaper UBL

Thanks for this list, I have submitted my site to as many as I can. Along with the benefit of an increased web presence I am hoping the citations will push me up in the google places rankings for the cities I have a location in. *Fingers Crossed*

Yeah, me too. But, for many, its still a good deal.

Hey Mat,

Great list – I see you posted that you are starting to update the list … whilst it is a huge job would be great if there was a list of directories relevent to Australian businesses .. Maybe someone SEO related from Oz reading the blog could throw in some suggestions??

Rob

Awesome list to help me out on my brand new SEO venture. Is there a possibility of an updated list Mat? It seems dated referring to when you made the actual post. Very useful still…Many thanks again. Also because I am quite a newbie into all this, do you mind sending me some pointers…

Great article. I can’t agree with you more. Yellow pages are extinct. Nobody uses it anymore.

Great list until I realized it was missing www.localpages.com

You must reconsider sir

Ok I do work there, but we have a nice database of our own, aggregate feeds from some of the main sites you even listed when we do not have results for a particular topic, and really provide some nice exposure for businesses on tight budgets. The free listing section here is very user friendly: http://www.localpages.com/advertise/free_listing/

Yes, its dated. I updated the top 5 a few months ago, but I just don’t have the time or focus to keep it updated. I’m a CRO (Conversion Rate Optimization) not an SEO (Search Engine Optimization), so I’m pouring myself into efforts like WebRoast.tv (my new blog) and not this old blog. I appreciate you reading this and wish I had the time etc to help. Best of luck in all your efforts.

To
oroscopo 2012

Yes I have the same opinion, at least it is not so popular as it used to be.

Hi Mat,
great list. Could you tell me how many are applicable to the UK market ?
Thanks,
Keith